


Langa Catches Up

by captainharpo



Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: Fluff, I wrote this instead of eating breakfast, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, also i didn't have a way to end it, and more about me moving their relationship along in a way that aligns with the show, hand holding 😳, i think it's a nice headcanon, it's less about them getting together, post ep 9, reki is appreciated, so i went for it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:40:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29909517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainharpo/pseuds/captainharpo
Summary: Langa catches up to Reki and they finally talk.
Relationships: Hasegawa Langa & Kyan Reki, Hasegawa Langa/Kyan Reki
Comments: 13
Kudos: 153





	Langa Catches Up

“REKI!”

Reki heard Langa call to him just as he reached his gate. He turned; there was Langa, running towards him with his skateboard. But it looked… weird… broken? So that was why Langa was here. He needed someone to fix his skateboard. He couldn’t skate with ADAM without the kind of mods they’d worked out. Reki turned back to his house, but didn’t go in.

“Reki!”

Langa caught up and doubled over, getting his breath. Reki just looked at him, unfeeling.

“Reki…”

“You need me to fix that?”

Langa stood up, surprised. He looked almost ashamed. “Huh? Well… yeah…”

Reki opened his gate and walked in. “Come on.”

They started walking over to his garage. Neither of them said anything. It was weird, because Langa didn’t speak very much in the first place, but it never mattered before because Reki would talk to him and then Langa could say things back. And now Reki wasn’t talking, so it was wrong. Langa must have felt it was wrong. He finally tried to say something just as they got to Reki’s garage.

“Reki… I didn’t just come here for the board.” Reki opened the door and walked in, and Langa followed. He put a new deck on the table. “What are you doing?”

“I can’t fix that one, because the board itself is broken. We’re going to have to make a new deck.” He held out his hand for Langa’s board. Langa hesitated, gripping the board tighter, but he handed it over, and Reki layered it on top of the new board. He went to get the drill, letting Langa stand there awkwardly.

“Reki, I--” Loud drilling cut through him, and resignedly Langa went to sit on the bench, the same place he always sat while Reki was building. Reki laid aside the drill and Langa’s old board and brought out the grip tape. Even though the drill was off, Langa didn’t try to say anything. Maybe he’d given up. _Fine by me_.

Reki had adhered and cut the tape and moved on to transferring the trucks by the time Langa spoke again.

“I saw you tonight… at S…”

Reki didn’t want to look at him. He tried and failed for a joke. “Well, I screamed at you, didn’t I…”

“But I was looking for you.” Reki couldn’t do this. He couldn’t. His breath came heavy and his screwdriver slowed down.

“I told you, the geniuses can skate together. You and I aren’t a good match anymore.”

“Reki--”

Reki slammed his fist on the table and finally turned to face him. “What’s the point, Langa?? I can’t help you anymore! You’re not going to get better hanging around with me! I’m a slime!”

Langa only looked a little startled, and averted his eyes. Damn him. “Miya was looking for you too.”

That… whatever. He went back to working on the trucks. “He’ll get over it.”

“He won’t! We miss you, Reki.”

“I don’t care.” It was the biggest lie he'd ever told, but it did the trick, because Langa stopped talking. After a couple moments of total silence, he glanced at Langa. His face was in his hands and his hair was falling over them. Now, had Reki wanted this to happen? Yes. Did he feel bad about it now? Also yes. Whatever. Langa would get over it. Reki finished moving the trucks and the toe clip and put the board down next to him. “It’s done.”

Langa looked at the finished deck. It wasn’t anything like his old board, with the cool footprints and Reki’s yeti drawing on the back. It almost could have been anyone’s skateboard, any of the number they sold at Dope Sketch.

“Thank you…”

“Yeah.”

Reki waited for him to leave, but he didn’t. He picked up the board and just kinda… hugged it. To his chest. His mouth wobbled a little. Reki crossed his arms uncomfortably. “Aren’t you going to test it?”

Langa didn’t say anything, just hugged the board tighter and bowed his head against it. Reki sat down next to him. He knew he should probably apologize for what he said, but he couldn’t make himself do it. At least, not until he saw tears dripping down the plain wooden backing.

Distressed, he started, “Langa, I’m sorry--”

“You don’t get it Reki! I can only skate with you!” He… what? “I can only skate with you! I only like skating when you’re there watching me!”

Right. “You have plenty of other people cheering for you.”

Langa's eyes were rimmed with red when he looked at him, and he couldn't tell if he was angry or desperate. “But they’re not _you_.”

“That doesn’t matter!”

“Yes it does.”

“Langa, I want to skate _next to you_!” Langa looked confused, so he kept going. “I can’t just cheer you on anymore, it’s not fun for me, I’m not made for that!” Now Reki was the one trying not to cry. He brought his point to a close as well as he could. “I tried to be happy on the sidelines, but I can’t. I just want to skate, and everyone keeps making it a competition and I can’t win those.”

“Reki…”

“Have fun skating with ADAM and the rest. I’m sure you’ll learn a lot.” He stood up, finally, and makes to leave. Langa would let himself out. But a hand grabbed him. Not his wrist this time, his hand. Reki looked around at Langa, who’d stood up like him.

“Reki, I mean it. I only want to skate with you. What you said.” Reki stood still. “It’s the same reasons I stopped snowboarding after my dad died.” Langa never talked about this. Reki turned more fully to face him. “I felt alone on the mountains, and so it didn’t matter anymore. You care about skating, so I cared about skating, Reki, and I didn’t care about it when you weren’t there.” Langa wasn’t looking him in the eyes, and it was okay. “I understand you don't want to only cheer me on, but I’m not going to skate without you anymore.” Langa didn’t look him in the eyes, and it was okay, because Reki smiled at him in a way that he knew he hadn’t in a while, and he tightened his hand in Langa’s, and then Langa looked at him and it was okay.

“You want to skate with me and I want to skate with you! That’s a good match!” Reki cheesed at him and Langa smiled as wide as he’d ever seen it. And he let go of Langa’s hand and held his other out instead, and Langa smiled at him more and they did their stupid little high-five/fist-bump and it was okay. Reki grabbed Langa’s board from the bench again. “Now that I think about it, we should probably try to get you a new look, huh? We’ll have to wait until we get to Dope Sketch to decorate it, but we can start designing it now.”

Langa nodded, and they were off.

An indeterminate amount of time later found Langa flat on the floor with Reki sitting next to him after Langa ate it because it turned out Reki had accidentally screwed the trucks in wrong. Oops. Reki was fixing it as Langa read out the texts he’d gotten from Miya over the last couple hours. Cherry had gone up against ADAM… it hadn’t turned out well. Reki finished tightening the screws (for real this time) and laid the board aside. He exhaled heavily and laid back next to Langa, and they stared at the ceiling and breathed.

“I turned in my S badge.” Langa turned his head towards him in surprise, but Reki kept staring up. “I couldn’t take it anymore, just being the guy who’s not you.” He counted the beams on the ceiling. “I think that to ADAM, everyone is the guy who’s not you.” He felt Langa turn away from him again.

“That’s really weird.”

Reki rolled his eyes and threw his hands up. “No shit it’s weird! He’s a psycho, that’s what I’ve been saying.” He remembered the way ADAM had held onto him, holding his own death over his head. “It’s just skating. It’s supposed to be fun.”

“That’s what you said to Miya.”

“And I was right!”

“Then he said that the better you get, the more people disappear.”

Oh right. He’d said that too. And Reki said he wouldn’t… He squeezed the heels of his palms to his eyes. “Damn it! Why am I the only one who’s not allowed to break promises, huh?!?”

Even as he said it he worried for a moment that Langa would get sad again, but he only laughed a little. “Joe told me that S is about competing to see who’s the biggest idiot. I think that, if you’re thinking about these things… you’re the smartest skater ever.”

And then Reki laughed too and his smile warmed his face. “You should all start taking notes then. Learn from the best!” And they both laughed then, and it was okay.

When they both calmed down, Lenga said, “Maybe I’ll leave the tournament.” Reki looked at him, surprised, but Lenga kept staring up. “Miya might go, too. We could all skate together somewhere else.”

Reki snorted and looked back up to the ceiling. “Just ADAM and Shadow. That would really ruin both of their days. ADAM might actually kill him, though.” And it was a joke, but it wasn’t a joke. Not after what he did to Cherry. “It would be nice, though…”

“I think Shadow better understands what ADAM’s about after tonight. He might still race because he wants the glory but… I don’t think any of us really want to skate alone.” Reki hummed, and they didn’t talk for a bit. 

“Hey.” Langa looked over. “ADAM’s the one ruining everything, right?” Langa nodded. “Well, it’s his track, but Cherry and Joe started it with him. What if we got them to help us find a new place? Then ADAM wouldn’t have the power anymore, and we could just have fun.”

Langa lit up. “As long as we’re skating together!”

He brought his hand up between them, and Reki grabbed it triumphantly. “Then this is the first day of… Project SK8!”

“Is that what we’re calling it?”

“What?”

“It’s not a very interesting name.”

“Neither is S!”

“S is mysterious.”

They kept arguing for the rest of the night, until they both fell asleep on the floor of Reki’s garage. At some point they woke up, freezing with headaches, and had to go inside the house, but it was okay. They were just catching up.


End file.
